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Feelin' Good ()Acoustic song, Levon Helm)

Hello Grafted In Reader, Today is Tuesday Dec. 9, 2025, in my corner of blog land. Up to six inches of snowfall predicted throughout this day here in my corner. Ugggg. I am 'feelin good' but took a segue from life on Monday to get some needed rest. Sometimes that cycle happens when one just wants everything to slow down to a crawl. Know what I mean? As to Reading and Writing I am about one-third through the Shirley Jackson novel, "We All Lived In A Castle". It's an entertaining story with a few twists and turns included. Most of a family are wiped out when the contents of the sugar bowl are switched to arsenic and a family dinner is the last time most will see each other. As to writing, I am working on a three-part feature called vignettes. Each is centered on a specific life stage. This is still a work in progress. My three titles: Homecoming: A Memoir Waiting for Messiah (anthology) Human Being Human Doing (short stories) are each enrolled in the ninth annual en...
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Be The One (Acoustic by Coldplay)

Hello Readers,  Today is Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025 in my snowy corner of blog-land. The final weeks of 2025 have arrived! In less than thirty days we will be bidding goodbye to the current and hello to the forthcoming! Most of this post will be focused on writing and currently reading. I hope you will stay and enjoy our short visit! It's now official: I have a newsletter and website of sorts at Substack . It's a trimmed down version of this blog, but also has several blog posts from here at Substack. Here is the direct link: https://davidcrussell.substack.com Next week, December 8 through New Years Day, my three book titles are enrolled at the end of year smashwords.com sale, EBook only. My titles include: Waiting For Messiah: an anthology, 2017 Homecoming:  A Memoir, 2018 Human Being Human Doing, 2023, six stories of humans living out their convictions . Prices are greatly reduced for the sale! Reading:  " My Name is Lucy Barton " a novella. Lucy is depicting her hospit...
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Thanks and No Thanks (David C. Russell)

Hello Grafted in Readers, In less than forty-eight hours, the USA Holiday of Thanksgiving will be noted on calendars across North America. I believe Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving day toward the end of October. I titled this post thanks and no thanks, because both are appropriate boundaries in my opinion. No thanks to the person who may infringe upon us by cutting in line, speaking a little too loudly, placing a little more demand on our time than we want to provide, someone endeavoring to get what we have, the list could go on for some time. What are you thankful for this year? I find somethings are that for which I am more thankful than someones. However, 'someones' are involved with the 'somethings' that make those worthwile: - Readers of this blog - Being able to participate on non-facebook groups like Reddit - A television that works and offers choice for viewing pleasure Good books and periodicals like "Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - Companionship wi...
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Run For the Roses ('balad, Dan Fogelberg)

Hello Grafted In Readers, Today is Tuesday November 18, 2025 in my corner of blog land. How goes it? Are you running for the roses? If not familiar with that song title from the early '80s, it was sung by the late Dan Fogelberg. The subject is race horses in training for the annual Kentucky Derby, which occurs interestingly the Saturday before the U.S., Mother's Day in May. I felt much like that song challenge just this past day as I set up a book coupon on Smashwords and Draft2Digital for my 2023 book, Human Being Human Doing.  This ebook has an active Smashwords coupon. We recommend that you DO NOT change your ebook prices until the coupon expires or you retire the coupon early. Changes to your ebook price could make your ebook ineligible for this coupon. GO TO THE COUPON MANAGER  Coupon code: cdwq2 Link: www.draft2digital.com/book#1080849# "Human Being Human Doing" David C. Russell, EBook. This like the training of race horses took a good amount of time in my after...
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Almost There (Movie Song, Princess and the Frog)

Hello Grafted In Reader, I feel like one who is in a sprint! Today is Monday, November 10, 2025 in my corner of blog land. A few items below: 1. First, my son, a former US Marine, tells me today is the 250th birthday of the USMC, United Stastes Marine Corp. It is also a sad day for this is the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the ship, the Edmond Fitzgerald on Lake Superior. Of interest to me, one can find a memorial service honoring the families of the deceased mariners online at YouTube, Mariner's Cathedral, Detroit. The recording is recent, November 9, 2025. I want to thank seven of you who have read my last two posts, which I checked before posting our visit. My last post, Birds Of A Feather, is an imagined story with birds as the main characters, and can be read in under five minutes. For interested faith practitioners, a couple conversational facts. Did you know that in Hebrew, Adam's wife Eve, is actually named Chavah? One of the transliterations for Chavah is "Mo...
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Update and Story: Birds Of A Feather (David C. Russell, Author

Hello Grafted In Readers, Today is a breezy November 4, 2025 in my corner of blog land. As you noticed from the subject, this post will feature a short story of mine titled, Birds Of A Feather. The setting is a beachfront that goes out into a strait called The St. Clair River here in lower SE Michigan. The characters are the birds who share this property with the public. One note, reference is made to the United States Government shutdown, which will hopefully be a thing of the past long before Springtime. We have self-centered public officials from both parties here in the U.S., in my opinion.  Feel free to share this story and blog with your friends and acquaintances. Comments welcome, but do enjoy this little escape from the pings and pongs of life. Birds of a Feather David C. Russell     The 50-mile bridge-to-bay trail was active Memorial Day Weekend.  Winter passed. This spring day offered mostly sunny skies, gentle breeze, a sense of refresh and hopeful...
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Don't Worry Be Happy (song, Bobby McFerrin, 1988)

Hello Grafted In Readers, Today is Wednesday, October 15, 2025  in my corner of blog land.   As you may know, one of my attributes is that of being a short story writer. With that, comes the need to create a general outline, and a general idea of the characters in a given story. I found an article about this topic at Reedsy Editing , with which excerpts are presented below to more less examine oneself. We spoke of mental health in our previous post, and this is a further add-it to that topic. The title of the post is " The Proust Questionnaire ." Excerpt Below 6. What is your idea of happiness? Is happiness something that your character feels every day, or something they strive for? What in this world brings them the most joy? (If you want to go one step further, think about what your character’s perfect day would look like.) Notable answer: “Everybody around me is happy, my spirit is right, and just nothing but peace and tranquility in the building.” — Snoop Dogg , Vanity Fa...
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